Animals such as calves, lambs, and other livestock usually undergo treatment by a farmer or veterinarian, preferably while the animal is young. These treatments may include administering medicine orally or by injection to protect the animal from various diseases, implants to stimulate growth of the animal, and ear tags for identifying the particular animal, or surgical procedures.
Livestock and other animals of similar size usually are temporarily restrained while the shots or other procedures are administered. This restraint is necessary both for effective treatment of the animal and for the safety of the person treating the animal; even a young calf can kick or step on anyone trying to vaccinate it. Consequently, various devices have been developed for temporarily holding and restraining livestock while allowing access to the body and head of the animal for treatment.
The known animal holding mechanisms generally are designed for larger or relatively mature livestock, and those mechanisms are correspondingly large and expensive. One such apparatus is known as a squeeze chute. Usually located at one end of a chute or alley into which animals are herded in single file, the squeeze chute temporarily restrains the animal with its hip and neck extending through an opening in the front doors of the chute. After the animal is treated, the operator opens the front doors of the squeeze chute and the animal exits through the front of the chute, making way for another animal entering the back of the chute as soon as the chute front doors are again closed. These chutes of the prior art are of necessity relatively heavy and immobile; the chutes are designed to restrain beef cattle, and the chutes must be heavy enough to stay put against the struggling of an animal restrained in the chute. These prior-art chutes typically are heavy enough to require a trailer for transporting the chute from place to place, and a cattleman working alone cannot easily carry one of these chutes to a field for treating cattle, and then move the chute somewhere else for treating other cattle or for storing the chute. Moreover, such restraining chutes are relatively expensive and represent a major expense to the small cattleman.
Another problem encountered with the chutes of the prior art is that the chutes are too large for effectively holding smaller animals, such as young calves or lambs. Merely scaling down the existing chutes in size to accommodate smaller animals, does not significantly overcome the previously mentioned problems with these chutes. Furthermore, downsizing the existing chutes to accommodate younger or smaller animals requires the cattleman to double his investment in chutes, an expense which many small operators cannot afford.
Another kind of cattle restraint in the prior art is known as the tipping calf table. With the tipping table, a calf or other animal first enters a chute-like structure for restraint, and the structure is then rotated 90.degree. to place the calf on its side. Once vaccination or other treatment is completed, the structure is returned to the upright position and the front gate of the chute opened, allowing the calf to leave the restraining apparatus. These tipping calf tables, as with other animal holders known to the art, are of necessity relatively heavy to hold a struggling animal, and represent a substantial expense to the relatively small operator.